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Venezuela's Contrarian TV Station Survives on YouTube
carlos_J writes "Ars Technica is running a story about RCTV, a Venezuelan television station whose broadcast license was refused renewal by the government. In response, the station turned to YouTube to get its message out. Says Ars, 'El Observador clips have been seen 175,000 times since May 28, and the channel is currently the most-subscribed channel of the week. While putting the station's shows on YouTube is an excellent idea, YouTube still lacks anything near the reach of over-the-air broadcasts. But the use of the site to avoid censorship is growing, and it's not hard to imagine a day in the near future when the site (or sites like it) becomes as essential as local TV stations. As that happens, YouTube will come into even more conflicts with governments that have an interest in controlling what their citizens see, It's already happening--Thailand's king, for instance, has a thing for iPods but isn't too keen on YouTube. Will Hugo Chavez show more tolerance? '"
Magic 8-ball says: "Not likely".
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
I was always told that the revolution would not be televised.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Yeah, you go to YouTube for the counter-revolution but three hours later you're watching old music videos and wondering where the hell the time went.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
A joke of a country that takes better care of its poor than the United States.
Fine, fine. How about we take your computer and redirect the money you spend on broadband and software and give it to the poor? After all, using your money to give food and shelter to the homeless is much more important than your "need" to post on slashdot, yes?
And please don't think I'm defending Chavez himself in any ways, but let's remember that Thatcher refused to renew the license of Thames Television. True, their license was lost for capitalist reasons (not being profitable enough), and RCTV was removed for political reasons, but many would argue that those reasons are not really all that different.
And let's be honest about this. In America in 2007, if CNN started taking an active role in the violent removal of Bush (who, while contraversial, was democratically elected), how long do you think the Bush administration would put up with that?
Chavez is authoritarian, heavy-handed and a bit megalomaniacal. But sometimes all of us need to take a good look in the mirror about the state of democracy here before we get all high and mighty about defending democracy elsewhere.
"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul." --George Bernard Shaw
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
he'd be the guy who shut down the live television channel
You mean, didn't renew the license of the station that assisted in the coup of April 2002.
http://use.perl.org
"Communism is man's exploitation of man. Capitalism is just the opposite."
Okay, I think that refusing to renew the license of this broadcaster was a bad move. BUT, under the legal theory that controls this sort of thing, it's pretty much a no-brainer.
i n_Venezuela#Events_leading_up_to_the_coup
Those broadcast licenses are *supposed* to be held in the public interest. This TV station supported a military coup against the democratically elected government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Attempted_coup_
That's a pretty unambiguous abuse of the public trust. Can you imagine what would happen to NBC's affiliate broadcast licenses if they supported a military coup against our government? If they weren't tried for treason and shot, they certainly wouldn't be allowed to keep broadcasting.
Which brings us to the subject of restraint - actually, Chavez has shown a remarkable degree of restraint so far against those who tried to overthrow him militarily. They haven't even filed charges against the military officers - the man that the coup tried to install as President was Chavez' opponent in following last Venezuelan election.
I seriously doubt that he's going to try and block Youtube.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
Interesting, First is was for showing him in a bad light. Now it is for participating in a Coup.
I seriously wonder why they people who run that station hasn't been arrested. I mean overthrowing your government is a crime after all. Ahhh, maybe they didn't participate but rather aired stuff that wasn't favorable to the almighty himself. Well, then we are back to the he didn't renew it because they criticized him.
I find it extremely ironic that the person who called Bush evil is now Evil and is being protested by the millions in his own country. A far larger single protest turnout then any of the opposition in America could organize. Maybe Venezuela is just that much bigger then America or maybe they just pick their battles.
I wish that were true, but it's a bunch of crap. Barring the use of fairly extreme measures on your part to preserve security, it's easy enough for the government to find you and send some men around to cart you off to someplace highly pixelated on google maps.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Let's pretend the government owns the airwaves as a public resource and licenses its use, ie the license to use the airwaves is granted by the government, not anyone's God-given right. Let's pretend a TV station who holds a government license for use of public airwaves sponsored a coup against a democratically-elected government. Let's pretend that coup attempt failed. Wouldn't the rule of law require that the people who attempted to overthrow the government be held accountable? Wouldn't a reasonable repercussion be that the TV station involved in the coup have its license revoked for its attempted overthrow of the government? Wouldn't it even seem especially charitible of the government to refrain from taking special action and simply refuse to renew the license when it came up for renewal?
Because that's exactly what happened here.
I have no sympathy for this station. Freedom of speech, my ass.
I seriously wonder why they people who run that station hasn't been arrested. I mean overthrowing your government is a crime after all. Ahhh, maybe they didn't participate but rather aired stuff that wasn't favorable to the almighty himself. Well, then we are back to the he didn't renew it because they criticized him. How, exactly, do you think that the mass media are used to participate in a coup? The cameramen bash the president's troop with their cameras?
Or maybe, maybe a media's involvement in a coup is through propaganda? Maybe? I find it extremely ironic that the person who called Bush evil is now Evil It is not ironic at all that you fell for the propaganda. The united state's media always cast him in a bad light. Low and behold, you think he's a bad man.
You can't take the sky from me...
Very true,
o =2054 although there are many voices of this, including watching the actual broadcasts which you can do on... Youtube!
RCTV's most infamous effort to topple Chavez came during the April 11, 2002, coup attempt against him. For two days before the putsch, RCTV preempted regular programming and ran wall-to-wall coverage of a general strike aimed at ousting Chavez. A stream of commentators spewed nonstop vitriolic attacks against him -- while permitting no response from the government.
Then RCTV ran nonstop ads encouraging people to attend a march on April 11 aimed at toppling Chavez and broadcast blanket coverage of the event. When the march ended in violence, RCTV and Globovision ran manipulated video blaming Chavez supporters for scores of deaths and injuries.
After military rebels overthrew Chavez and he disappeared from public view for two days, RCTV's biased coverage edged fully into sedition. Thousands of Chavez supporters took to the streets to demand his return, but none of that appeared on RCTV or other television stations. RCTV News Director Andres Izarra later testified at National Assembly hearings on the coup attempt that he received an order from superiors at the station: "Zero pro-Chavez, nothing related to Chavez or his supporters.... The idea was to create a climate of transition and to start to promote the dawn of a new country." While the streets of Caracas burned with rage, RCTV ran cartoons, soap operas and old movies such as "Pretty Woman." On April 13, 2002, Granier and other media moguls met in the Miraflores palace to pledge support to the country's coup-installed dictator, Pedro Carmona, who had eliminated the Supreme Court, the National Assembly and the Constitution.
Would a network that aided and abetted a coup against the government be allowed to operate in the United States? The U.S. government probably would have shut down RCTV within five minutes after a failed coup attempt -- and thrown its owners in jail. Chavez's government allowed it to continue operating for five years, and then declined to renew its 20-year license to use the public airwaves. It can still broadcast on cable or via satellite dish.
From http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artn
http://use.perl.org
But first, take a ride around Haiti so you'll know where you're swearing you're in looks like.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
"Mission Acomplished" (probably dressed as a paratrooper in a chinese aircraft carrier, a la Bush).
RCTV was the channel with the most geographical reach (nearly 100% of the country). Here in Venezuela, the "regional TV station" is a very recent phenomenon. Most of the TV stations are repeaters of national chains, and being the oldest, RCTV had the most coverage.
By replacion RCTV with a new station, Chavez acomplishes two goals, get out of the way a big nuance, and replacing that signal with on he can easily control (he is not controlling it yet, but now is quite easy).
In a country were internet penetration is low, and Broadband even lower, and where internet is mostly used by people who already opose Chavez, loosing the free/broadcast opposing medium is quite a blow for disension (I will not YET claim is a loss in freedom of expression).
Anyway, as I sit here (in Maracay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maracay) configuring my new laptop, I receive (Radio, MSN, SMS) reports of protests all over the country... But do not be fooled, these are not riots (thanks the lord), and Chavez already survived a general 3 month strike. Therefore, in about two weeks the protests will subside, the thing will be forgoten, and the same university students who are protesting now will be watching RCTV in YouTube using the campus broadband...
Is a pitty...
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
Yeah, what a dictator. He was overthrown in a coup, and what did he do to the *lead organizer* of the coup (Pedro Carmona**) when he got back into power? Kill him on the spot? No, even worse: he was put under *house arrest*. Such strict, brutal house arrest that he was able to flee to Colombia. What a brutal dictator Chavez is!
Imagine how the US would react if Bush was overthrown in a coup and then got back into power. What do you think would happen to anyone even remotely related to the coup?
** By comparison, what was that great icon of freedom, the US-backed coup leader Pedro Carmona doing shortly after overthrowing the government? Why, his first acts were to dissolve the legislature, the judiciary, and abolish the constitution that was overwhelmingly approved in referrendum. But, in the strange world of the Right, he's a democratic hero, and Chavez is an evil dictator.
"Now," she thought, watching the dolphins adjust their bowties, "might be a good time to up my medication."
For God's sake, move back to reality here. The guy's a socialist. He hates Bush and America's current foreign policy. Beyond that, there's nothing much special about him.
Seriously. Let's look at some other countries in the region concerning opposition TV stations, shall we? (re, Diana Cariboni)
1. Colombia:
"In October 2004, the Uribe administration closed the public Instituto de Radio y Televisión (Inravisión),? which aired "documentaries that were often awkward for the government."
2. Honduras:
"President Manuel Zelaya ordered all TV and radio stations to broadcast 10 daily one-hour programmes during prime time, starting Monday, to counteract what he called "misinformation" on his administration provided by the press.
"Honduran law stipulates that nationally broadcast messages (known as "cadena nacional") can only be used to call elections or in case of natural disasters or emergencies."
3. Nicaragua:
In 2002, during the administration of Enrique Bolaños, the radio station La Poderosa, aligned with former president Arnoldo Alemán, had their equipment seized without any legal proceedings.
4. Venezuelan opposition:
"[I]n 2003, Caracas Mayor Alfredo Peña, an outspoken Chávez opponent, also closed down the community station Catia TV for several days."
5. Mexico:
Oaxacan newpaper Diario Noticias, which "is openly critical of [?] Governor Ulises Ruiz, has been the target of attacks since 2005, including assaults on its journalists and attempts to evict the staff from the paper's offices."
6. Uruguay:
In 1994 President Luis Alberto Lacalle "stripped the CX 44 Radio Panamericana station of its licence after it urged the public to take part in a
demonstration."
Now, hey, let's go back to Venezuela. Let's look at that great and honorable privately owned Venezuelan media system. Back during the coup, the station was nothing but nonstop pro-coup propaganda: video after video of the anti-chavez side with hardly a shot of the pro-chavez side, with constantly mentioning reports of Chavez supporters shooting at opponents and none of the reports of the opposite. When the counter-coup happened? They avoided news and played soap operas and the like instead. Before and after the coup? Potshots at Chavez all the time.
How did the opposition get ahold of all of the major networks? Because the opposition owns most of the country, period. They're the same "upper class" that's been around for hundreds of years, dating all the way back to Spanish colonialism.
"Now," she thought, watching the dolphins adjust their bowties, "might be a good time to up my medication."
Acutally, you can say he is brutal. According to the Amnesty International 2006 Report for Venezuela, torture, extrajudicial executions, and enforced disappearances continue to go unpunished. These types of actions are hardly taken by the benevolent, fatherly type of "liberator" Chavez likes to portray. Simon Bolivar would be rolling in his grave if he knew Chavez renamed Venezuela the Bilovaran Republic. Even the Special Rapporteur for the Organization of American States filed a report that harshly criticized the Chavez regime's targetting of journalists, including beatings, threats, and incarceration. Face it, he ain't no O'Higgins or Bolivar. He is a thug in a good suit and calls himself the President.